Abandoned Macy's Midwest Headquarters: An Eerie Photo Tour

Editor's note:Riverfront Times has honored Philip Thomas's request that we remove the photos he shared with us. Also, the property manager for the Railway Exchange Building wants everyone to know that exploration of the building's vacant floors is expressly prohibited.

The former Macy's Midwest Headquarters in the Railway Exchange Building at 6th and Olive streets in downtown St. Louis saw such a transformation. In 2008, five floors of retail outlets, a spa, a restaurant, and even a basement fashion studio simultaneously closed their doors. At one time, the center had 1,000 employees. Today, there are about 135 on three remaining active floors.

Philip I. Thomas went exploring -- with permission he says -- in the closed floors. He discovered evidence of a lost retail civilization in the form of dusty escalators, empty clothes racks and mannequins. Lots and lots of mannequins. Check out the eerie photos below.

But as Thomas found, the building still looks a lot like a Macy's. A super creepy and obviously haunted Macy's. He declined to talk about his exploration, but welcomed us to share his photos. (He adds only that he was given permission to poke around, but since then the rules have somehow changed. Urban explorers, take note.)

Blame Carl Ican? Or, City/County disconnect? Or, those who destroyed Kiel Convention Hall, Closed the opera hosue for 2 decades, neglected Soldiers Memorial, kept the Plazas-deadzones, destroyed the Ambassador Theater and swept off the Riverfont all in-place for admission places of musical entertainment. All to protect the Fox and Grand Center. The Famous-Macy's downtown demise is just a symptom of this destruction. Other cities did the opposite. Their downtown retail is doing a big better.